Illtjmmating-pbojectiiie



A. G. BERGMAN. ILLUM!NAT|NG PROJECTILE.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 2,1919.

Patented ,May 27, 1919.

Y INVENTOR v ze'vg/Za rz thereof for a suicient length of time to cnable the illuminating material to expend 1t- 25 No. 119396,11 have Toall whom 'it may concern 17 1917, Serial vNo.

UnrrEn STATES, PATENT orifice.

AXEL G BERG'MAN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., lASSIGNO'B. TO -OBDN'ANCEEN(avINEEB'IN'GI' CORPORATION, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.,

A. CORPORATION OF. NEW JERSEY.

' ILLUMmA'rrNG-Pnomcrnn.

vOriginal application led February 17, 191-7, Serial No. 149,260.Divided and 1919. Serial No. 287,002.

Be it known that I, AXEL G. BERGMAN, a subject of the King of Sweden,residing in the borough of Manhattan, city, county, and State of NewYork, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in.Illuminating-Projectiles, of'which the following is a specification. l

This invention relates to illuminating projectiles and aims to providecertain improvements therein, -thea'pplication being ra division oforiginal application filed February 149,260. -Projectiles of this typeare designed for illuminating an object or field in the .distance 'andusually comprise a casing havin a mass of discharged from definite pointinthe Hight nited. The illuminatingmaterial is 'usually sustained inmid-air by a" parachute or` equivalent device which retardsV the fallself. In my application illustrated a construction of such shell.

The present invention relates to.. a construction of such .deviceswhichwill-better rt-the shell for usein connection with higher sible -to useeffectively yfor tain low rate,

powered guns such purposes. In the .ordinary use of such projectiles itisfound that if the speed of the projectile expulsion of nant and itsparachute be in excess of a certhe parachute, whose rea l v'function itis to sustainthe illuminant, is

' which point the immediately slatted or torn to pieces with the resultthat the illuminant drops `tothe ground. Hence where thefield ofilluminaso that a gun of tance, it his found impracticable to releasethe illuminant and-Tits parachute except .at or about the shell istraveling at its lowest speed.- This seriously interferes with theusefulness of the shell, as it practically prevents its use at shorterranges.

The principal object ofthe present invention is to provide anilluminating shell from which the illuminant can be discharged atspeeicatin `of Letters Patent.

.in such manner as proper than it has been hitherto' posl3--3 in Figssummit of the trajectory, at

' comprising casing C. -provided Patented May 27, 1919. this applicationlled .April 2,

any point in the trajectory, practically irrespective of the speed ofthe projectile at the time of discharge. To this end the inventioncomprises a means stopping the illuminant in its forward flightsustaining parachute or other device.

the preferred'for'm of the invention I make use -of a `retardinparachute whichis so' much smaller an so much stronger than fully resistthe atmospheric pressure and check orretard the flight of the illuminantwithout danger of being destroyed. In carrying out the'invention I mayemploy two casings, the inner of which contains the Ailluminant and itssustaining parachute, and

propriate point in the flight of the projectile, the ,outer casing/continuing its flight and the inner casing oint for the Preferably alsofield to be illuminated. the inner casing contains some timing element(which may be fixed) adapted to delay the expulsion charge for theilluminant until the speed of the inner for checking or l being retardedat the' to avoid 'slatting of thethe sustaining parachute that it cansuccesscasing is well checked, whereupon the' illuminant and itssustaining parachute are pro j-ected and the' illuminant ignited. Thein- {ventfion also includes certain other improvey ments which will 1'described.

be hereinafter more fully Referring to trate the preferred form of theinvention,-

Figure 1 is a diametrical section of the corlnplete projectile;

the drawings which illusy,

f g.' 2- is a similar view taken at an angle to Fig. 1;

Fi'g. 3 isa cross-section taken on the lines 1 land 2.

Referring to the drawings, -let A indicate the. projectile as a whole.which is shown as an ,outer casing B and an inner Theouter casing ispreferably with a timing element such as a time fuse, the latter beingshown asmount'- ed in the base D'and comprising a puncturable tube Earrangedv within a vcircular chamber F. The lower end of the casing B vis formed with a series of apertures G through which an instrument canbe forced to penetrate the casing E. The casing E `ontains a powder orother charge having a d finite rate of-A burning, and by puncturing t elat-ter at the appropriate point, the length of time required to ignitethe expelling charge is predetermined." Preferably the tube 'E is fittedin a bloclmH which has an extension I leadingto the chamber J whichcontains the expelling charge. Openings such as 'K permit the lire gasesfrom the propelling charge to ignite the fuse through the puncturedhole. 'This construction is inthe main set forth in my prior ap#plication above -alluded to. The casing B also contains the retardingparachute L which is best packed'above the 20 casing C and is preferablyattached to the latter casing by a chain M, the end ofrwhich is fastenedto thel casing C by a pin or the like N.

The casing C contains the illuminating body O, and above'l it thesustaining parachute P fastened to the body O by a cord connected withan eye Q, or in any other Dsuitable manner. The casing C i s preferablyprovided with a base R, the center part of which is formed with achamber S adaptfed to contain an expelling charge for the illuminant.Inthe construction shown the base is also bored to receive a fuse suchas T, the base-at the ends of the bore being cut away as shown at U inlorder to permit the flames from the main expelling charge in the chamberJ to easily reach the fuse. In the construction indicated the fuse T isadapted to burn .about two seconds after the casing C is expelled, andbefore the eXpelling charge in the chamber S is ignited, this delaybeing desirable in order that time may be provided for the Speed of thecasing-C to be checked or retarded7 before the .illuminantbody isexpelled from the latter casing. Y A 1 1 In illuminating shells, (andparticularly those for, use in high power guns', the illuminant body isvery apt to become-shattered 50. or crumbled bythe force of thepropelling charge inthe gun. This force is communicated to theCasingteforeth anemia. of the shell can be transferred to theilluminant, and the latter becomes disintegrated vor crushed. I find inpractice, however, that if the illuminant be packed in a metallic orlother 'stiff container which is adapted to burn or melt at about the'same speed as the illuminant, the latter :will be maintained intact,and this is particularly true if the container d be wound with wire soas to vstrengthen the container. I have found in` practice thatsheet-zinc is quite appropriate --for the container (which 'isfshown atV). A common iron wire of light gage is suit- A in B as indicated at Y.

. illumina the 'base I preferably employ a metal disk X )which issuitably perforated to permit vthe gases from the 4 chamber S to ignitethe il1uminant;' and I- also preferably 'imposebetween"`the disk X; andthe bottom of the illuminant a liber disk X which eases the shock on theilluminant when the projectile is fired.

Difficulty has 'also been encountered in the provision of a suitablecover for the casing 8() C, which -must be sufliciently easily forcedouty of. place to permit the illuminant to leave the shell and which atthe same time is capable of preventing Vingress of lire gases' to theilluminant while the latter is in the g5 gun; I haveyfound that a fiberdisk such as Y forced into vthe end of the casing serves these purposesadmirably. A similar constructionis adopted in the end of the casn allprior illuminating shells with which I am acquainted, difficulty x hasbeen encountered in the unfolding of the parachute element in Hight.Great care has. been used in packing the parachute to avoid any twistsor turns inthe cords leading from the pe riphery of the parachuteto-the'main or cenf tral cord, the latter device being folded or. loopedwith the idea thatby so doing the parachute would be enabled to becomeimmeminantsfall tothe ground withdut the parachute filling. Effortshave. been overcome this without success.

I havefound, contrary to expectation, that if the numerous cords be wellwound around `madeto.

and around the'parachute body, the latter 110 will ll quiteas quickly,and practically all K irisk of entanglement ofthefcords is elimi- Theoperation ofthe invention -will be Aapparent; "If a gun'has the-possiblerange 1-16 of three and it is desired to illuminate a field one-halfmiledistant, the time fuse is appropriately punctured to expel thesuiiciently to enable the sustaining, parachute to act' with safety,whereupon 4 the charge 'andH Sustaining para- '125 chute are eJe'ctedand the charge ignited.

While the invention has been described with reference to'a particularform offcon-y struction, it is not limited to the precise arv*rangementshown and described, inasmuch as various changes'can be made withoutdepartingfrorn the spirit and scope of my invention.

What I4 claim isz- 1. An illuminating projectile having an outer casing,an inner casing7 a retarding -parachute fastened to said i'nner casing7an illuminant Within sald inner casing, and av sustainingwparachute'also Within said inner casing, and connected to said illuminant.

2. An illuminating shell comprising an outer casing, a timing devicecarried by said outer casing, an inner casing, a retarding parachuteconnected to said inner casing,

an expelling charge adapted to expel said inner casing and saidparachute at a predetermined point in'fthe trajectory of -the shell,

' said inner casing carrying an illunnnant,

and a-sustainin'g parachute, and means for expelling said illuminant andinner parachute after the inner casingjis expelled from the outercasing..

3. A projectile having an illuminant con' tained therein and anautomatically separablerigid Wall positioned laterally of the,illuminant and acting to protect the illuminant from excessiveexplosive shocks.

i4. An illuminating shell comprising an outer casing, an innerv casing,and an illuminant within the inner casing, an expelling .charge for theinner casing,'

charge for the inner casing, andv an expelling charge for theilluminant.

5. An illuminating shell 'comprising 'an outer casing, an innerv casing,and anilluminant Within the inner casing, an expellingb an expellingcharge .for the illuminant, and Aa', time fuse for said last-namedexpelling charge.

6. An illuminating shell comprising a casing, and' a cover for saidcasing comprising 40 a disk member contacting with a -steel portion ofthe shell., saiddiskmember formed of materially Asofter .metal thansteel.

7. An illuminating shell comprising a casing and a cover for sai casingcomprising 45 a ber member forced into the end` of said casing.

8 An illuminating projectile containing an illuminant andsustainingmeans adapted to be discharged therefrom, charge, and separable meanscoperating With said illumina-nt and sustaning means and acting to housethe illuminant and sustaining means and also to receive the force ofsaid expelling-charge, whereby said con- 55 1 tents can be dischargedfrom the projectile my name.l

I AXEL G. BERGMAN.

an expelling 50

